By Billy Davis

Two state inmates who escaped from unsecured sleeping quarters at the Panola County jail last December have received 10-year sentences and five years probation as part of a plea deal.

Bobby Joe Wilkerson, 32, and Calvin Curry, 27, were sentenced before Circuit Judge Jimmy McClure Monday in Batesville. They faced several counts but pleaded guilty to only one, felony escape.

Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale presented the state’s case.

Both inmates were housed at the Panola County jail, where they participated in the Joint County State Work Program.

The longtime program provides Mississippi counties with state trusties from the Miss. Department of Corrections, with the incentive of free labor and payments from MDOC for housing them.  

Wilkerson and Curry worked as trusties outside the jail, earning a day off their sentences for every day worked. Both men worked for Panola County Solid Waste.

The work program also allowed Wilkerson and Curry to slip away unnoticed, since they were housed in a separate building with other trusties with minimal security to guard them.

Following their escape, Panola County government has since purchased 440 feet of eight-foot high fence. The fencing, topped with razor wire, was erected around the metal building in late May.

The two trusties sneaked away together on December 13, a Saturday night, by stealing a courtesy car parked at the county airport, authorities later learned.

 Both men, sometime that night, burglarized a home on Macedonia Road, stealing jewelry. Then they ran into dumb luck: about 1:30 that morning, interim Sheriff Otis Griffin saw the airport car on Curtis Road and became suspicious.

Now aware the car had been spotted, the escapees returned to the jail and parked the stolen automobile near the jail grounds. They attempted to sneak back into their building, but Griffin had alerted jailers of the car and a head count had been conducted. A third inmate, Jon Burton, was found sleeping in one of their bunks and a pile of clothing was found in the other.  

Jailers were waiting on the escapees when they stepped onto the jail property about 3:30 that morning.

Wilkerson, after he was captured, told sheriff’s investigator Barry Thompson he had escaped “a couple of times” and Curry had escaped “several times,” according to court records reviewed by The Panolian.

Wilkerson told Thompson he was “scared at first,” when he first sneaked away off the jail grounds, “but here lately I got pretty comfortable with it.”

“Y’all are our responsibility and y’all are out running around the county,” Thompson told Wilkerson, according to court records.

Curry, when he was interviewed, admitted to Thompson that he and Wilkerson had stolen jewelry from a home on Macedonia Road.

Wilkerson led authorities to the jewelry, which had been stashed on the side of the road, Thompson told The Panolian this week.

“If Otis had not spotted the airport car, they might have sneaked back and never got caught,” Thompson said. “That would have been a hard burglary to solve.”

Before the December 13 escape, Wilkerson had sneaked away days earlier. On the earlier trip, he was dropped off by a friend at a Sardis hotel, where his girlfriend worked and where he stayed the night. He also attended a birthday party while away from the jail, according to court records.

Wilkerson and Curry were indicted in February with conspiracy to escape and felony escape. Both men were also indicted on two counts of grand larceny for stealing the automobile and burglarizing the home.

Wilkerson, when he was indicted, was serving a 12-year sentence for burglarizing homes in Panola and Lafeyette counties. MDOC records show he was set to be released in December 2019, though that release date was being shortened through the state’s trusty program as well as its parole program.  

Wilkerson attempted suicide, using a shower rod to hang himself, the Monday after the escape.

Authorities speculated that Wilkerson tried to kill himself because the latest charges qualified him as a habitual offender under Mississippi law, causing him to serve more time if convicted.

For both Wilkerson and Curry, the 10-year sentences run concurrently, meaning they do not add time to their current sentences. But the plea deal is still a “hard hit” for Wilkerson because he loses his right to early release, said attorney David Walker, the public defender who represented Wilkerson.

“Mr. Wilkerson had parolable offenses,” Walker said, “and now the new sentence basically nullifies his parole.”

MDOC records show Curry was set to be released in October after serving a five-year sentence for residential burglary and uttering a forgery. That release date is also likely in doubt due to his guilty plea.

Curry was represented at the plea hearing by public defender William Maxey of Grenada.

Sheriff Griffin said Wilkerson and Curry, after the plea hearing, have been removed from the Panola County jail and sent back into the state’s prison population. That should serve as a warning to other inmates seeking to escape, the sheriff said.

Asked if he believes trusties are still escaping, Griffin said, “No. There are none. Now we’ve got somebody, all of the time, doing bed checks and head counts. They’re being watched constantly.”